Ohio is often considered a state of industrial practicality and heartland traditionalism, but its skyline tells a more eccentric story. From corporate headquarters shaped like picnic accessories to homes that look like they fell from outer space, the strangest buildings in Ohio defy easy categorization. These architectural oddities aren’t just quirks of construction. They’re bold (sometimes baffling) statements that challenge our expectations of form and function. Whether they were born from artistic deconstruction or one person’s singular obsession, these seven structures show that the Buckeye State has a surprising appetite for the bizarre.
1. The Longaberger Basket Building – Newark
Newark’s now-abandoned Longaberger Basket headquarters is a prime example of mimetic architecture: a seven-story corporate headquarters designed to look exactly like a Longaberger Medium Market Basket—the company’s main product. Completed in 1997, this structure is a monument to corporate audacity, featuring two 150-ton steel handles that rise into the sky and are heated to prevent ice formation. It’s not a subtle nod to the company’s product. Rather, it’s a literal, 180,000-square-foot reproduction that achieves a kind of kitschy surrealism. Driving past it feels like a glitch in scale, as if a giant simply set their picnic down in Newark and forgot to pick it up.
2. The Benson Ford Shiphouse – Put-in-Bay
Perched precariously on an 18-foot cliff overlooking Lake Erie, the Benson Ford Shiphouse is a nautical hallucination. It’s not a replica, but the actual forecastle of a 1924 Ford Motor Company freighter, sliced off and cantilevered over the rock face. Walking inside is disorienting; the interior retains the original walnut paneling and brass fixtures of a working ship, yet the horizon remains stubbornly still. It’s a landlocked vessel that refuses to dock, offering residents the romantic isolation of life at sea without ever leaving the solid ground of South Bass Island’s shoreline.
3. The Mushroom House – Cincinnati
In the orderly grid of Cincinnati’s Hyde Park, the Mushroom House looks like a fungal growth erupting from the sidewalk. Designed by architect Terry Brown over nearly two decades, this one-bedroom studio is a chaotic masterwork of organic architecture. There are no straight lines here; instead, the structure is a swirling collage of warped wood, colored glass, seashells, and ceramics. It rejects the staid rigidity of the surrounding suburbs in favor of a biomorphic, fairy-tale aesthetic. It feels less like a building constructed by human hands and more like something that grew, wild and unchecked, from the earth itself. Mushroom House is a prime example of some of the weird architecture in Ohio.
4. Loveland Castle – Loveland
Chateau Laroche, better known as Loveland Castle, is a testament to the sheer force of human will. Built almost entirely by one man, Harry Andrews, over 50 years, it was intended as a stronghold for his Boy Scout troop, the Knights of the Golden Trail. The architecture is medieval, but the materials are distinctly makeshift—when river stones ran scarce, Andrews molded bricks using quart-sized milk cartons. The result is a rough-hewn, formidable fortress on the banks of the Little Miami River that feels ancient and improvisational all at once, standing as a monument to one veteran’s medieval obsession.
5. The Double Futuro House – Carlisle
In a field in Carlisle sits a piece of retro-futurism that looks ready for takeoff. The Futuro House, designed by Matti Suuronen in the 1960s, was an ellipsoid, prefabricated ski cabin meant to embody the Space Age. Carlisle is home to a rare double Futuro—two of these flying saucers joined together. With their oval windows and sleek, plasticized hulls, they stand in stark, aggressive contrast to the rural landscape. They’re relics of a future that never quite arrived and look like a UFO crash site that has been repurposed into a private residence.
6. The Wexner Center for the Arts – Columbus
Peter Eisenman’s Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus is a building designed to unsettle you. As a pioneering work of deconstructivist architecture, it intentionally breaks the rules of utility and comfort. The building’s most famous features are its “columns to nowhere”—massive brick pillars that hang ominously from the ceiling but stop short of the floor, supporting nothing. The grid work is misaligned, and many stairwells lead to dead ends. It’s an intellectual puzzle made of brick and glass that forces visitors to navigate a space which actively questions the very purpose of architecture, prioritizing theoretical rigor over physical logic.
7. Peter B. Lewis Building – Cleveland
Frank Gehry’s contribution to Case Western Reserve University is a study in fluidity. The Peter B. Lewis Building appears to be melting, its stainless steel skin cascading down the facade in ribbons that mimic a waterfall. There are no traditional corners or rooflines; the steel undulates, catching the light and changing the building’s character with the passing clouds. While practically complex—the curves famously shed dangerous sheets of ice in winter—it is visually mesmerizing. The building stands as a rebellion against the rigid geometry of academia, a fluid, chaotic sculpture that captures the energy of the management school housed within.
These buildings are powerful reminders that architecture is not always about blending in. From the cliffs above Lake Erie to the suburbs of Cincinnati, these structures disrupt the mundane and demand attention. They’re the physical manifestations of bold ideas and eccentric dreams, proving that in the Buckeye State, the line between genius and madness is often just a matter of blueprints. Visiting this septet of strangest buildings in Ohio offers a glimpse into the creative, and occasionally bizarre, spirit that defines the state’s built environment.
Looking for more unique architecture in Iowa? Check out Cleveland’s Terminal Tower. For more inspiration, visit Only In Your State’s itinerary planner before you set out on your next Buckeye State adventure…